Adventure Camp is for boys and girls who are 7-9. Our daughter is seven and our son is nine, so this was the first year they were together at camp. He has been there twice before. This was her first time. They missed us and got homesick, but they did not cry. Continue reading »

In less than 140 characters, Saturday Night Live writer Katie Rich managed to mock Barron Trump, homeschooling, and school shootings all at once in a Tweet that has since been deleted.

The First Family during the Inauguration

Many are now asking for NBC to fire Rich. It’s one thing to disagree with President Trump’s policies. It’s another thing altogether to attack his 10-year-old son. Most of us will never understand the pressure this child has been facing for the past 18 months, since his father decided to run for the presidency. Imagine what it will be like for him for the next four or even eight years to pretty much grow up in the White House.

Last spring, Smoky Mountains Soccer Academy started operating in Gatlinburg, at the multi-million dollar facility known as Rocky Top Sports World. It costs $100 per child for ten weeks. The practice is one hour on a weekday. They have no games over the weekend.

Smoky Mountain Soccer Academy – my son’s group of players and coaches

The main coach is a teacher and a soccer coach in the public school system and he said, “I believe weekends are for the family. Plus, I need my weekends off. I’m a teacher.” I could not agree with him more. Continue reading »

During the Olympics, Walmart ran a back-to-school commercial using “Here I Go Again” – a song from the 80s by hard rock band Whitesnake. As I listened to the lyrics, I could not believe my ears. Walmart was making my point for me: going to school is a lonely road. You are alone even though you may be surrounded by a group of children. What ABOUT socialization?

School socialization is focused on clothes, loneliness and pairing up.

Socialization is used as an excuse by many parents who send their children to school. In fact, I heard it put this way: “For the rest of their life, they will live surrounded by people. So we must send them to spend several hours a day in a place where they are surrounded by people.” The French go as far as sending their babies to daycare at three months in the name of “living in a collective.” Continue reading »

Every spring, I buy some vegetable plants and start another garden in my 4’x8′ enclosed patch in the backyard. The whole thing started when my son was one. I felt inspired to teach him where foods come from. He is six years old now.

I have learned a thing or two every year from working in the garden. About gardening and, also, about my own character. Lately, about homeschooling, too.

This year, I have already gleaned two lessons:

1. Don’t (trans)plant too early. We planted our veggie garden in mid-April. A week later, hail and snow killed it, even though we covered it with a sheet. When it’s cold, it’s cold. Continue reading »

The other day I took my son to his science class, organized by our local aquarium specifically for homeschoolers. As I sat there looking at PowerPoint slides of bones and muscles, I also glanced occasionally at the students sitting on the carpet. They interacted well with each other and looked oh, so socialized.

1. Introverts will be introverts. My Myers-Briggs profile is INTJ – Introversion, iNtuition, Thinking, Judgment. I attended public school and, before that, I was in day care. I have friends and I enjoy public speaking, but I will always be an introvert. Personality does not change. Shy children will be shy no matter where they went to school.

2. Public school is not the real world. When I was deciding on educational choices for my children, some people encouraged me to send them to public school because “public school is the real world.” Nonsense. Where else in your post-college world will you spend seven hours a day with 25 other people your age?

The best way to socialize a child is by exposing her to different age groups and different social situations – and homeschooling affords that as we take our children to different co-op classes, orchestra events, 4-H groups, mission trips, nursing homes etc. That’s the real world.

My extended family having breakfast together

3. Do not underestimate the mommy factor. Dr. James Dobson talks and writes frequently about the importance of the mother in the lives of her children. Research shows that children who grow up in the care of somebody else other than their mother show more aggressive behavior and disobedience than those raised at home by their own mom.

5. Spending long periods of time with peers does not lead to higher intelligence. Madeline’s eleven peers wanted their appendix out, too. They saw Madeline, a popular kid, show off a scar as a badge of honor. They also saw the dollhouse and gifts Madeline’s papa sent while she was in the hospital. They did not think about Madeline’s pain. They wanted surgery because Madeline had surgery and she got all that. It’s called peer pressure and not thinking things through – the modus operandi of traditionally-schooled children.

While deciding to homeschool, I struggled with many questions, but socialization was not one of them because I had read the Smithsonian Institution’s recipe for genius and leadership from “The Childhood Pattern of Genius” by H. McCurdy:

a. Children should spend a great deal of time with loving, educationally minded parents;

b. Children should be allowed a lot of free exploration; and

c. Children should have little to no association with peers outside of family and relatives.

“What about socialization?” If you homeschool, you have been asked this question at least once. And that’s OK.

Here are 7 ways to deal with the socialization question:

1. Congratulate this person for having the courage to ask. Homeschooling one’s child is like wearing braces after 35. Even though it is legal and more accepted than ever, it remains a bit of a stigma. Most people think they embarrass you if they ask questions about it.

2. Ask them to define socialization from their perspective, so you understand their background. It also helps with figuring out the emotion behind the question. Are they open-minded and curious? Or angry and closed-minded? Give information to the curious and don’t argue with the angry ones.

3. Mention your children attend [insert activities outside the home], where they have lots of opportunities to interact with people of different ages and walks of life.

4. Tell them people have socialized their children in the context of home for millennia. Ask, “Do you think American children were ‘unsocialized’ before 1852, when compulsory attendance was introduced for the first time?”

5. Smile. Ask: “What do Jesus, George Washington, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Albert Einstein, Tim Tebow, and Will Smith’s children have in common? Homeschooling. As far as I know, none of them has/had problems interacting with others.”

6. Using a meek voice, tell them: “Socialization in a school environment is self-taught and unsupervised, i.e. children learn to socialize between classes or during recess and lunch. No adult takes the time to teach them the proper way to interact with each other because adults are not welcome in their circles at those times. Adults only intervene when things get out of hand. This type of socialization has more to do with being cool and fitting in than with manners, team work, and being polite.”

7. Last but not least, use this: “Personally, I have a problem with the quality and quantity of socialization that happens in schools. Spending 35 hours a week in a classroom with 30 other children is not socialization. It is over-socialization.”

However you answer the socialization question, be gracious and patient, not snarky and sarcastic. People are on different journeys. The last thing they need is to be snapped at by a homeschooling mom.

This summer, DS was finally able to take part in the Junior Ranger Program organized by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One must be at least five to start in one of the age groups available. I have been looking forward to this program for about 3 years. Yes, I like to plan ahead.

1. Complete eight activities in the booklet. It took us three fifteen-minute sessions over a month. We stretched it out especially because we were busy with family visiting from overseas.

2. Attend one ranger-led program. We attended three. Just because. Plus I wanted my Not-So-Junior ranger badge, which one can get after attending – you guessed it! – three programs.

Our first event was Bear-mania. We learned there are 1,600 bears in the park, 2 per each square mile, which is a really good density. We got to touch a bear skin. I was OK with touching the fur, but my son invited me to feel its paws and claws. I hesitated. Then, I went ahead and touched those parts anyway, trying hard not to shudder. The things we do for our children…

Our second event was Retiring the Colors, a touching presentation on the Stars and Stripes which taught the children how the flag came about, how to fold the flag and what the stars and stripes stand for. They got to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Then, they all ligned up and folded the flag. And what do you know? My children knew how to stand in line – proof positive that they don’t need to go to school to learn that particular life skill. We practice at the supermarket every week, don’t we? I digress. The good news is that since this program both my children have been spotting the American flag everywhere we go.

Bear-mania!

Retiring the Colors

Yukky Animal Stuff

Our third event was Yukky Animal Stuff, a hilarious presentation on scat, skulls, and scents. When the ranger asked for volunteers to come upfront and read the Scat Rap, DS volunteered. DS stood in front of the class, alongside six others, and followed directions. What was that question about socialization again? He even read along with them from the laminated piece of paper he received. (He reads on third grade level, but that is a topic for another post.)

In all honesty, I feel the what-in-the-world-am-I-doing-with-this-homeschooling-thing fear now and then. The fear that I am “messing up my children,” “handicapping them for life,” or “ruining their education and their ability to socialize normally” – all words said to me or my homeschooling friends by well-meaning family members and friends. But then I attend events like those just mentioned above and I relax. My children interact well with people of all ages and they are not afraid of public speaking. Breathe.

3. Pick up one bag of litter. We walked around our neighborhood and picked up trash from the ditches or the road itself. It took about 30 minutes. We filled up two shopping bags, especially from the ditches around overnight rentals. People like to party and throw their beer bottles in the ditches – that’s one of the lessons of the day. Besides discussing hygiene and proper trash disposal, we talked about the dangers of alcohol consumption. Again.

4. Take booklet to a Smokies park ranger at any visitor center. DS was so excited to get his badge! He got sworn in and received a certificate, as well.

Badges

Signing the Certificate

As we walked away from the Sugarlands Visitor Center toward the car, my son asked me: “Did I earn it, mommy?” pointing to the certificate in his hands. We have been talking with him about how fun it is to receive gifts and how it is even more fun to earn things. I reassured him he earned it and that mommy was proud. Because I am.